Thursday, July 19, 2012

Arsenal and Chelsea keen on £10m-rated Blackburn midfielder Nzonzi

Arsenal and Chelsea are keeping tabs on Steven Nzonzi's situation after the midfielder demanded to leave Blackburn.

Want away: Blackburn's Steven Nzonzi is looking for a move

Rovers boss Steve Kean has slapped a £10m price tag on the 23-year-old.

The Frenchman was left at home as Rovers headed to Austria for their training camp.

Kean said: 'Steven has asked for a transfer. I want players who want to be here. That’s the reason why Steven was left at the training ground when we went away.I’ve had a couple of meetings with his dad, who is his agent.

'He would like to play his football elsewhere, so we’ll be listening to offers if they come.

'We’ll see how it develops. At the moment we’re not planning to have him in the squad.'

Nzonzi joined Blackburn from French club Amiens in 2009 and has played 97 games in his three years at Ewood Park, scoring five goals.

He signed a five-year contract in August 2010, soon after winning the player-of-the-year award in his first season with the club.Striker Yakubu has already left to move to China since Rovers’ relegation, while star man Junior Hoilett is expected to depart after reaching the end of his contract.

Kean said: 'I think we’ll lose one or two. That will be natural.

'Yakubu called me the other day and was very thankful to the club, the staff and the fans for making his stay welcome.

'It was a nice touch. Unfortunately he’s left the club because he managed to have a big impact last year.

'Junior is out of contract. We made him an incredible offer but he’s decided to go and speak to other clubs.

'What we’re doing is bringing in players like Nuno Gomes, Danny Murphy and Leon Best. We’ll continue to try and hold on to the majority of our squad.

'It will be natural that we might lose one or two, but it won’t be six or seven that we’re going to be losing.